The present invention generally relates to a drive hub, and more specifically to a drive hub having an oil check hole.
Many new machines have drive hubs which contain a number of internal components such as gears. These components need to be lubricated in order to ensure a long service life. Generally, an oil check hole is provided so that the level of the lubricant within the drive hub can be checked. A drawback to oil check holes that have heretofore been used in drive hubs is that reading the level of the oil within the drive hub requires that the hub be moved to a predetermined orientation prior to checking the lubricant level. In addition, there are usually at least two drive hubs, so the work machine must be precisely positioned at least twice to read the lubricant level in both drive hubs.
Placing the oil check hole along the axis of rotation would allow the level of lubricant to be read if the components within the drive hub were equally distributed about the axis. Unfortunately, many drive hubs contain planetary gear sets which have a number of planet gears positioned between a sun gear and a ring gear. A drawback to using a single round hole placed along the axis of rotation is that it would be impossible to accurately read the level of lubricant within the drive hub at any orientation if the hub contained a planetary gear set.
What is needed therefore is a drive hub having an oil check hole which overcomes the above-mentioned drawbacks.
In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for determining the amount of lubricant within a housing. The apparatus includes a shaft driving the housing about an axis, a number of interior components positioned within the housing, and an opening defined in the housing and centered on the axis. The distance between the a lower edge of the opening and the lowest portion of the housing is proportional to the amount of lubricant displaced by the components. The level of the lubricant within the housing is determined relative to the lower edge.
In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a work machine having, a frame, an engine, a shaft driven by the engine which drives the housing about an axis, a number of interior components positioned within the housing, and an opening defined in the housing and centered on the axis. The distance between the a lower edge of the opening and the lowest portion of the housing is proportional to the amount of lubricant displaced by the components. The level of the lubricant within the housing is determined relative to the lower edge.
In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for determining the amount of lubricant within a housing (ii) driven by a shaft along an axis, (ii) having a number of interior components positioned therein, having an opening defined therein and centered on the axis. The method includes the step of configuring the opening such that the distance between the lower edge of the opening and the lowest portion of the housing is proportional to the amount of lubricant displaced by the components. The method further includes the step of determining the level of the lubricant within the housing relative to the lower edge.